A full week of live music!    Words: Dave Whiteman, Pictures by Matthew Thomas

 

Wow, what a busy musical week this one has been. Last Thursday The Magpies hosted the Royal Oak Open Mic in Gnosall, and what an excellent night it was. Friday had Robbie’s in Rehab rocking the Navy Club at the Halloween Party, Sunday night saw the superb Paul Parker and all the Right Friends at the newly refurbished New Inn, and before you know it we are back at the Navy for the Newport Open Mic….a real live music fix. Just as an aside, in 1971 at a theatre in Minneapolis, USA, promoter Al Dvorin quietened a very lively crowd who were demanding an encore, by uttering the immortal phrase…..’Elvis has left the building’. Interestingly, we had our own Elvis in the building this week, but more of that later!

 

Lexi Tapley started the proceedings with Alan Lane accompanying on guitar and wowed the audience with heartfelt ballads from Sam Smith and Leann Rimes to give us a great start to the evening. 

 

Nice to see Graham Weir coming down to the club more often and it’s clear that he has been practicing a fair bit. He always had a good voice and a nice stage manner, but he now seems a lot more confident and it shows in his playing. Lovely ballads from Dylan and Brian May preceded a right old singalong with Irish folk song Donegal Danny, and it seemed we were in for a good night.

 

I don’t always get a chance to sing and play, but when local drumming legend Paul Crewe turned up looking for someone to perform with, how could I refuse?  Bass player Nick Wells completed the rhythm section and we were off with a little medley of hits from Sam Cooke. It has just been announced that Phil Collins is to tour again after many years, so it seemed fitting to close with one of his most famous numbers….’In The Air Tonight. Always a pleasure to play with musicians of this calibre.

 

The Dynamite Dick Band (yes, honestly) are a Telford based classic blues & rock group and two of their number were in the audience looking for musicians to make up a Scratch House Band. I love it when this happens, it almost always means a great set, and this lot didn’t disappoint. Guitar vocalist Paul Townsend and guitarist Gary Williams were delighted to recruit Steve Davis on bass and John Dougill on drums and together they made some very good sounds indeed. My particular favourite was also one of the most requested Radio Two songs ever….Warren Zevon’s ‘Werewolves of London’ so was a perfect choice to finish a terrific set.

 

Steve Davis, who regularly travels down from Manchester to the Newport Open mic, stayed on stage to give us lovely laid back songs from JJ Cale, Neil Young and a super cover of ‘Hurt’ which was originally released in 1994 by Nine Inch Nails. This version however was much more like the Johnny Cash version and, quite rightly so, you could hear a pin drop.

 

Newcomer Eric Barlow travelled over from Albrighton to check out our Open Mic, but hadn’t intended to play. Luckily for us though he had his guitar in the car and after a little gentle persuasion he was welcomed onstage for his debut performance, and what a set it was. He is clearly a superb guitar player, well used to retuning from open tuning during the set, but it was his voice that also grabbed the attention. It reminded me a little of Joe Cocker, but without the shouting….more melodic, and if possible even more soulful. I may be a little biased though as he played two of my all-time favourite songs….’May You Never’ by John Martyn and ‘Blackbird’ by The Beatles so for me, this was the best act of the night.

 

I mentioned Elvis in the introduction and next up Anthony Cox has a brilliant tribute act to the great man, complete with wig, white suit and cloak.  No dressing up tonight for Ant, however. Performing as Harbour Lights, he fronted a tight little band that had Alan Lane on guitar and the aforementioned Nick Wells and John Dougill on bass and drums. He cannot get up and NOT do an Elvis song, so the band duly obliged with ‘That’s All right Mama’ but it was Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’ that brought the most applause and closed a strong set.

 

So another brilliant night of local live music played to a very appreciative audience, see you all the same time next week. 

 

Keeping it live